Lemoine Jarrell Michael - Sechs Augenblicke

Summary of This Score

This score is part of a very personal approach by Michael Jarrell, who describes the composition as an ethical experience, rooted in reality and the present time. Rather than aiming for a large continuous form, the composer chooses here an architecture of six brief parts, close in spirit but deliberately distant from the classical "symphonic" model. The whole is conceived as an exploration: fragments, sound situations, concentrated musical ideas, with an inverted dramaturgy where the shortest pieces are placed at the heart of the journey, like an implosion and condensation of the material.

The first part opens with grand carillons, with a declamatory character, driven by a nervous and breathless rhythm. The flow suspends at the center, then resumes, redirecting the listening towards the play of resonances. The second movement relies on a rhythmic ostinato that swells in intensity before diminishing, while a solo oboe weaves a melodic line treated in a spirit of variation. The third piece, shorter, evokes a music box: a simple melody, played piano, highlighted by a fine and complex orchestration.

Almost connected, the fourth fragment takes the form of a brief little dance. The fifth, by contrast, establishes a very slow tempo, playing on register oppositions between the highest and lowest instruments of the orchestra. Finally, the finale features virtuosic writing: ascending arpeggios progressively densify the voices towards the high register, creating a bright and incisive tension. Mentioned in the original summary, the performance on 02/22/2022 in Nantes (Cité internationale des Congrès) by the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire under the direction of Pascal Rophé recalls the stage grounding of this music, conceived for sonic impact, color, and precision of orchestral gesture.

Technical specifications

Musical Genre

Classical

Composer	Michael Jarrell	Genre	contemporary score
Instrumentation	orchestra	Language	French